The Colosseum and Vespasian's Rome

A new exhibition at the Colosseum offers a glimpse at the legacy left by the
monument's builder, the Emperor Vespasian. Mary Beard offers a guide.

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The Colosseum is the most recognisable monument of ancient RomePhoto: GETTY

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The Arch of Titus stands just a few hundred yards from the ColosseumPhoto: GETTY

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Vespasian and his sons were responsible for developing the Palatine HillPhoto: GETTY

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Via Sacra, the main street of ancient RomePhoto: GETTY

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Vespasian's surviving portraits are in a Cromwellian warts-and-all stylePhoto: GETTY

By Mary Beard

11:10AM BST 30 Sep 2009

The last words of the Emperor Vespasian – the eighth emperor of Rome – were memorable for their down-to-earth common sense. "Damn," he is supposed to have said. "I think I am turning into a god." If true (and that's a big if), it was a cynical comment on the Roman habit of turning dead emperors into minor deities, complete with temples and priests.

Vespasian had come to the throne in AD 69, taking over – after a year of civil war that had seen three other very short-lived emperors – from the psychopathic Nero. Vespasian's propaganda machine stressed how different he was from his predecessor. Unlike the decadent, lyre-playing, late-adolescent Nero, Vespasian presented himself as middle-aged, sensible, old-fashioned and a prudent manager of the Roman economy ("cash doesn't stink" was one of his favourite slogans – a reference to the tax he put on urine, a key ingredient in the Roman laundry industry).

His surviving portraits are in a Cromwellian warts-and-all style. It was a great fresh start to a new Roman dynasty, spoiled only by his children and successors. Titus (who reigned from AD 79 to 81) didn't actually have enough time on the throne to put much of a foot wrong. But his younger brother Domitian, assassinated in AD 89, was as bad as Nero. In fact Romans knew him as the "bald Nero".

Vespasian himself wanted to show how devoted he was to the Roman people. So he sponsored the Colosseum – one of the greatest venues for popular entertainments in the city, with a capacity of more than 50,000 spectators for gladiatorial shows and wild beast hunts.

Financed with the profits of Vespasian's war against the Jews, this stadium was built on the site of Nero's private lake (from whose banks, we are told, upper-class ladies had plied their trade as amateur prostitutes for the emperor's delight). The message was clear: what, under the previous regime, had been part of private luxury was now devoted to the pleasure of the whole people.

The Colosseum is now the most recognisable and impressive monument of ancient Rome – at least from the outside. The inside is, frankly, a disappointment. Until the late 19th century it was a rampant botanical garden, housing an extraordinary range of hundreds of different plant species in its own special microclimate. Whole books were devoted to its flora from the 17th century onwards; some specimens were said to have come from the farthest corners of the Roman empire, brought in as seeds on the furry coats of the animals slaughtered in the arena.

Since archaeologists got to work in the 1870s, stripping the building down to its bare structure, there has been much less to see (and what exists is, in part, Fascist restoration dating from the Thirties). It is for this reason, no doubt, that the archaeological authorities in Rome have started to use some of the internal corridors as an exhibition space. It gives the visitor something to look at and helps justify the hefty ticket price.

The latest show, running until early next year, celebrates the builder of the Colosseum, Vespasian himself, on the 2,000th anniversary of his birth, and it collects together all kinds of rarely seen objects connected with the emperor. It must be admitted that Vespasian's art works have not fared well across the centuries, and you need to be prepared for some sadly fragmentary remains.

That said, the show makes a powerful case for taking Vespasian's impact on the Roman cityscape very seriously. It puts on display, for example, some tantalising fragments of the only surviving ancient map of the city (the so-called Marble Plan, carved in stone in the early third century AD). Here you can see the outline of Vespasian's great Forum of Peace (Forum of Pacification might get the Roman sense better) – depicted in detail, right down to its ornamental flower-beds. On a more domestic scale, also on show is the tomb memorial of Vespasian's long-term mistress Antonia Caenis (a woman celebrated in Lindsey Davis's engaging novel The Course of Honour).

It is hardly a blockbuster. But it does offer an extra dimension to a visit to the Colosseum, a glimpse of the riches of a forgotten Roman dynasty and all kinds of surprising treasures.

My favourite objects were a marvellous silver mirror, with an instantly recognisable portrait of Domitian and the tomb of a builder, showing many of the famous monuments of the period (which the dead man had presumably helped to erect).

The sights of Vespasian's Rome

The idea of the show is to take you outside the Colosseum to visit other Vespasian-themed sites in the city. Top of the bill are the following:

The Arch of Titus

Standing just a few hundred yards from the Colosseum is the arch erected at one end of the Roman Forum to celebrate the victory of Vespasian and his son Titus over the rebel Jews in AD 70. What you see now is not entirely ancient – the splendidly stark monument was heavily restored at the beginning of the 19th century. But the two surviving sculptured panels, showing the Roman victory parade over the Jews (with the menorah and other sacred objects of the Temple carried along as booty), are among the very few major works of art in Rome to remain in their original position, in the open air.

The famous bronze statue of Marcus Aurelius on his horse was taken inside the Capitoline Museum a few years ago and replaced with a replica in the open-air piazza outside the museum.

The Palatine Hill

Vespasian and his sons were largely responsible for developing the Palatine Hill, just above the Forum, into a fully blown "palace" (the name "palace" comes from the hill). Today, the once grand buildings are sadly dilapidated and it is hard to recapture the glittering luxury of the first century AD (the bare brick you now see was once faced with marble and precious stones). But the museum on the Palatine (the Antiquarium), unimpressive and easily missable from the outside, is well worth a visit. This displays some of the wonderful works of art that once decorated the imperial residence. The monster Nero, psychopath though he may have been, comes rather well out of this. The marble decoration from his pre-Vespasian palace – including some marvellous inlaid "dancing girls", which you would easily imagine were 18th-century – must count as the most exquisite from any time or place in the Roman world.

Painting and decorating

The other major show in Rome this autumn is an exhibition of Roman painting at the Scuderie del Quirinale (about 30 minutes' walk from the Colosseum). Roma: la pittura di un impero ("Roman Imperial Painting") is the biggest exhibition of ancient paintings for decades.

It includes material from the first century BC to the fifth century AD and has drawn from collections all over the Roman world; but some of the star pieces come from Pompeii and Herculaneum in the reign of Vespasian (just before the eruption of Vesuvius). Here you can see the brilliantly evocative landscapes of the period, the mythological scenes, the once-censored erotic images and the wistful portraits. This is Roman art at its finest.

How to avoid the queues

The ticket for the Colosseum (including the Vespasian exhibition) now offers entry to the Roman Forum (where you can see the Arch of Titus) and the Palatine Hill. The only problem is the queue to buy the ticket – often an hour or more at the Colosseum, even in the low-ish season.

If you have not done your planning, you are likely to find the shortest queue at the entrance to the Forum on the Via dei Fori Imperiali (you can buy the ticket and then go straight to the Colosseum, jumping the line). But it is much better either to buy in advance online (www.ticketclic.it), or to get a Roma Pass.

For €23 (£21), this gives you three days' travel on public transport and free access to two museums (Colosseum, Palatine and Forum counting as one). You can buy online (www.romapass.it) or at museums or tourist information sites. It is a real bargain.

Mary Beard is Professor of Classics at Cambridge University and co-author, with Keith Hopkins, of The Colosseum (Profile Books, £8.99).

Our guide to Rome on a budget, including details of the cheapest flights and good-value places to stay, will be published in October.

A guide to the Colosseum and other Roman sites is included in a new Telegraph book: Sites of Antiquity: From Ancient Egypt to the Fall of Rome – 50 Sites That Explain the Classical World by Charles Freeman (Blue Guides, £25). Available from Telegraph Books (0844 871 1514; books.telegraph.co.uk) for £23 plus £1.25 p & p.